At Sea and Working Hard

We are settling into the routine of shipboard life. It has been hard work getting to this point. Five out of the last seven days have been only 23 hour days. It is amazing how much difference one hour makes. All of us have felt the stress of a new routine, new job, and new lifestyle. And barf bags are abundantly placed around the ship for those who have not yet acquired their sea legs. I myself have adjusted quite well to this rocking and rolling and it is especially nice at night when sleeping….very relaxing.

The good news is that I am pretty sure I am burning more calories using my muscles to continually adjust to the ship movement, while keeping my body in a mostly upright position. The bad news is the food is very good and it is incredibly difficult to not load the plate which then results in more calories to burn. I am hoping to get into a gym routine after the Textbook Center closes.

The work has been exhausting…setting up and operating a bookstore without knowing what I am doing. Now that I have gotten the hang of it, this part of my job is coming to an end.

The students have been wonderful ….very patient and forgiving. It has really been fun getting to know them and helping them out with their books. And some of them could really use a mom right now. I think Reggie, Jackson and I are joining the “adopt a student or 2’ program that is on board the ship. More on that later.

For the last 3 days, David Geis from UVA's own Spanish Department, has been giving us fabulous and humerous lectures about Spain. He has spoken about the food, the art and architecture and the political history, especially since the repressive Francisco Franco Regime which ended upon his death in 1975. These lectures occur everyday during the Global Studies classes which all are expected to attend...even the worker bees like me. They will always be relevant to either the environment we are presently in as well as the approaching port. We had lectures on ocean currents and weather patterns and climate the other day.

Today is sunny and still relatively warm. We are at Latitude 34 degrees, 6.4 North and Longitude 22 degrees, 5.4 West. Our course is 80 degrees and speed is 14.7 knots. Less than 48 hours we will arrive in Spain.

By the way scroll down to the bottom of the blog to get my first entry. I am catching up and there is more to come.